Gratitude... goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.
-Henri J. M. Nouwen

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

January

On this icy morning with more snow in the forecast I feel a gnawing angst. The holidays are over, and I look at the mostly blank calendar stretching before me with nothing more than day in and day out routine. This poem from Luci Shaw reminds me even this bleak month of January has cause for praise if I embrace the details of this ordinary day and hold on to the sure hope of spring.

Psalm for the January Thaw

Blessed be God for thaw, for the clear dropsthat fall, one by one, like clocks ticking, fromthe icicles along the eaves. For shift and shrinkage,including the soggy gray mess on the decklike an abandoned mattress that haslost its inner spring. For the gurgleof gutters, for snow melting underfoot when Istep off the porch. For slush. For the glistenon the sidewalk that only wets the foot soleand doesn't send me slithering. Everythingis alert to this melting, the slow flow of it,the declaration of intent, the liquidation.

Glory be to God for changes. For bulbsbreaking the darkness with their green beaks.For moles and moths and velvet green mosswaiting to fill the driveway cracks. For the waythe sun pierces the window minutes earlier each day.For earthquakes and tectonic plates-earth's bumpand grind-and new mountains pushing uplike teeth in a one-year-old. For melodrama—lightning on the sky stage, and the burst of applausethat follows. Praise him for day and night, and lightswitches by the door. For seasons, for cyclesand bicycles, for whales and waterspouts,for watersheds and waterfalls and wakingand the letter W, for the waxing and waningof weather so that we never get complacent. For allthe world, and for the way it twirls on its axislike an exotic dancer. For the north pole and thesouth pole and the equator and everything between.

3 comments:

I know exactly what you mean. The empty calendar feels strange, uncomfortable. But I'm working on a post today about how I finally understand the purpose of "Ordinary Time" in the church's liturgical year. Beautiful poem.

Happy New Year! I think it might be because I live in Florida, or perhaps it is because my December was so incredibly busy...January is such a welcome joy to me! New beginnings...the freshness of a clean home and a brand new slate for 2009..a slate just waiting to be written upon. Ahhh...I love January. However, the poem was beautiful and so are you my friend.

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Books I'm reading or reading again and again

Quotes that inspire me

“God is not a belief to which you give your assent. God becomes a reality whom you know intimately, meet everyday, one whose strength becomes your strength, whose love, your love. Live this life of the presence of God long enough and when someone asks you, “Do you believe there is a God?” you may find yourself answering, “No, I do not believe there is a God. I know there is a God.” ~Ernest Boyer, Jr.

"there is no use trying," said alice... ..."one can't believe impossible things." "i dare say you haven't had much practice," said the queen. "when I was your age, i always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes i've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common--this is my symphony." William Henry Channing

"PEACE. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart." Unknown

Lines from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved. The ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”